In a motor vehicle, the driver specifies a driver-intended torque or a driver-intended engine output of a vehicle with which the vehicle is to be driven by operating the gas pedal, i.e., via the gas pedal position. In a motor vehicle having an internal combustion engine, the gas pedal position corresponds to a position of a mechanical throttle valve which controls the air supply to the engine. The connection between the gas pedal and the throttle valve may be designed to be mechanical as well as electrical. In the latter case, the gas pedal position is assigned a throttle valve position in the form of a provided manipulated variable via an assignment characteristic curve. Gas pedal values are assigned to the gas pedal position, a maximum gas pedal value corresponding either to the absolutely maximum possible torque or to the instantaneously maximum possible torque, which means that the driver operates the gas pedal “by feeling” for engine outputs which are lower than the maximum possible engine output, and the gas pedal is displaced to the maximum for triggering the maximum possible engine output.
However, it is not possible for the driver to operate the gas pedal in such a way that the motor vehicle is operated in a consumption-optimized manner since the consumption-optimized maximum engine output is typically lower than the maximum possible engine output by an amount not determinable by the driver and a corresponding assignment to a gas pedal position is therefore not determinable offhand by a driver of the motor vehicle.